What a day! What a journey! I’m not really a big fan of driving, but this trip was a real jaw dropper with some outstanding scenery. After a final day yesterday with Ben, Jonathan and Anna, we’ve hit the road and headed south into neighbouring state, Oregon. While Clare was working, running an online training webinar, Anna dropped me in town to pick up our new wheels. There were a row of Porsches at the hire place, so I was quite excited to find that the Martin luck was in and I was being upgraded from the cheapest car that I’d booked to ‘something much better’!

I didn’t get the sports car, but I was very happy with the very smart and much more practical Mazda 4×4 with its spacious boot and heated white leather seats!

The drive was an absolute stunner, with us going ‘wow’ at every turn! (Not that there were very many turns!) As for navigation, it was very straightforward – especially when the next turn is 114miles away!

We went from coastal inlets to dense forest where the roadside was lined with 100ft high trees in full autumn colours. We climbed mountain passes and at one point got a bit worried as we reached the snow line!

We were having way too much fun to turn off at this junction!…

We passed the ski resort at Mt Hood, which was our high point at just under 4000ft!

We then descended into dry prairie lands that seemed to be uninhabited, and surrounded by distant giant snowy peaks.

The change in landscape through the six hour drive was wild.

After two short stops, we finally, we reached our target destination of Smith Rock, just as the sun was getting low. The temperature had really dipped and although we were buzzing with excitement and pent up energy, we opted to take a walk through the park, rather than try and go climbing. The scenery was even more beautiful than I’d imagined. With the low sun making the rock glow, it was quite an incredible induction and well worth the efforts of getting here!

We walked, gaped, took photos and picked out some of the climbs we’d like to try…

We even saw some little deer…

As the sun set, we congratulated ourselves on making an excellent last minute decision to not camp and to book and Airbnb instead! By the time we reached the car, it was zero degrees!

Five minutes later in the nearby town of Terrabonne, we soon located our beautiful new (warm!) home for the coming week’s adventures. I think we’ll be alright here…